Photo Albums

Photos of Hafez Assad and his son Bashar Assad are festooned all over Syria and Lebanon. This gallery documents how a cult-of-personality for the Assads has been established by the Syrian regime in both countries. The photos come from a variety of sources.

March 19, 2008

It's almost New Year's time - Norouz, that is - and the kids are out on the streets in Iran celebrating an ancient regional holiday in a manner that can't be pleasing to the mullahs.
That's one brave young woman - dropping her mandatory hijab to join the circle dance.
Here's another daredevil.

March 18, 2008

The Saudi Arabian Parliament Monday rejected a
recommendation to adopt an international agreement that forbids
insulting of religions, prophets and clerics, the Saudi daily Al-Watan reported.

Seventy-seven members of parliament rejected the
recommendation, claiming that if they adopted the agreement, they would
have had to recognize the legitimacy of idolatrous religions, such as
Buddhism.

The recommendation was put forward by MP Muhammad
Al-Quweiha's. In his recommendation, Al- Quweiha's wrote that the Saudi
Foreign Ministry should cooperate with the Arab and Islamic bloc in the
United Nations to adopt the agreement.

"The concept of religions varies from one country to the
other and from one culture to the other. Buddhism and Bahaism are
considered religions in some countries, but must Muslims respect these
sects and not condemn them," said MP Khalil Al-Khalil, who rejected the
recommendation.

March 17, 2008

Two decades since the gassing en masse of civilians as part of the Anfal campaign, a date commemorated this weekend, prompted the following thought from an anonymous reader of Kurdish Media:

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Saddam's gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja, which killed over 5,000 innocent people and left thousands injured, some of whom are today still suffering from a the deadly strike. The attack on Halabja is only the most famous of many carefully planned attacks on Kurdish people which were part of the Anfal campaign, an attempt by Saddam Hussein to eliminate the already oppressed Kurdish people of Iraq. An unknown number, many tens of thousands, were murdered, some of whom simply disappeared without a trace.

The world was silent. Most remained unaware while some knew but chose to keep quiet. It was only 20 years ago, yet today too many people wonder why the Kurdish nation is suspicious of its neighbors in these uncertain times. Meanwhile, the city of Halabja remains underdeveloped, forgotten by the outside world and too often used as a symbol by opportunists who have no interest in aiding its people.

Please take a moment to remember and pray for the victims Halabja and the Anfal campaign. It was not so long ago.

March 15, 2008

A conference in Qatar on
human trafficking has urged Arab states to step up the fight against
the scourge, seen as widespread in the pro-Western oil-rich Gulf region...

Five of the six GCC
member states -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia -- are
on a blacklist of countries trafficking in people. GCC countries, which also include the United Arab Emirates, are close allies of the United States.

International human
rights groups have also highlighted the problem of human trafficking in
the Gulf area, which hosts more than 13 million expatriates, many of
them unskilled and low-paid Asian workers vulnerable to abuse.

Three other Arab countries -- Algeria, Sudan and Syria -- are on the list of worst offenders.

Qatar-based Muslim
scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi told the conference human trafficking
was banned under Islam. He slammed companies that bring in "migrant
workers, give them a bare minimum of wages and pen them up like sheep"
in crammed rooms as living quarters.

It's hard to see these wonderful declarations actually getting put into practice. Societies like Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE are based on population majority of migrant workers, many of them low-paid (if at all) domestic help. Oil revenues may be up, but not enough to stop the temptation of abusing legions of employees who have no legal recourse or civil rights...

March 14, 2008

March 13, 2008

The consecration of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, planned for Saturday, appears to be a sign of Qatar's efforts to open up to the West as it seeks a bid for the Olympic Games in 2016.

Qatar's ruler has also approved five churches for other Christian
denominations, all under construction next to the Catholic one.

Attracted by a booming oil economy, expatriate workers make up at least 70 percent of Qatar's population of about 1 million.

Some 150,000 Christians of all denominations live here, over 90
percent of them Catholic expatriate workers from the Philippines and
other Asian nations, Christian community representatives said.

Qatar follows the rigorous Wahhabi teachings of Sunni Islam, and like neighboring Saudi Arabia had not previously authorized Christians to practice their faith openly.

But a priest had operated in Qatar since the 1960s without official
approval, said Archbishop Paul Hinder, the Apostolic Vicar of Arabia
and the top Roman Catholic cleric in the region.

"Catholics in Doha finally have their home where they can gather in freedom and security," Hinder said by telephone from his base in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Qatar's emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani,
personally donated the land to build the $15 million church with 2,700
seats in the outskirts of the capital, Doha, church officials said.

Out of respect for local sensitivities, the church will not feature
any religious symbols — neither a cross or a bell tower — that would
identify the building as a place of Christian worship...

There are seven Catholic churches in the United Arab Emirates, four in Oman and three in Kuwait. Yemen
has three belonging to indigenous Christians and four unofficial
Catholic parishes around the country that meet for prayers in rented
houses.